In the "Letters" section of the January 2023 Nuclear News, the letter by Jack Woolum ("Opinions on nuclear waste," p. 6) contains opinions that I feel need to be challenged. First, Woolum states that 4,800 thyroid cancer cases resulted from the release of iodine-131 during the Chernobyl accident (no citation provided) and implies that such a detrimental health effect could also result from the accidental release of 1-131 from a nuclear waste repository. Such an implication is not valid. Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from operating reactors must be stored in cooling pools for at least one year after removal from the reactor core. Since the half-life of 1-131 is 8 days, more than 45 half-lives of radioactive decay would transpire before the SNF is removed from the pool to be shipped to a repository. This would reduce the inventory of 1-131 to negligible amounts, the release of which would not constitute any threat to public health if an accident were to occur.
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